Minivan suggestions again

[java]

Well the Town and Country has finally died. It will cost over $3800 to fix and quite frankly with 150000 miles I don't think it's worth the fix.

But now the problem. What to buy? Money is an issue so value is good. We are a family of 6 so I thinking minivan again. I was hoping to last another year with this car but no such luck.

So what minivan do you have and do you like it?

 

[Sugar Jones]

We have a Chevy Venture and I have two words:

RUST BUCKET


Seriously every Venture I see rusts away in the same place. We've had no problems otherwise, but it doesn't look pretty anymore

 

[NYEmomma]

I just got a Toyota Sienna (07) last week... it's my first minivan and while a part of my soul died the minute they handed the keys to me, I've got no complaints with it. Power sliding doors on both sides are NICE (and DD think it's the coolest thing ever) and we used the "stow & go" seating and folded down the back row seats for the first time this weekend & it was really easy to do.

 

[cjnix29]

I have a VW Routan, and I love it! The back seats are the most comfortable back seats I have sat in in a minivan. It doesn't have stow and go, which is disappointing, but it does have the storage compartments in the floor, you just can't fold the seat down into it. Plus...I don't feel so much like a soccer mom, because it's a VW.

 

[Ennazus8810]

Love, Love, Love my Grand Caravan (2010). (Essentially a Town & Country, only stripped down a little bit.) The duel power sliding doors are great, and I love the fact that the side windows go down. The stow N go seats are very easy to use.

 

[blessedby3]

We have had 2 Fords (Windstars) and now have a Toyota Sienna (05). It has been a great van...103,000 miles on it. Ours is an 8 passenger...LOVE that as that gives us 2 extra seats instead of one (we are a family of 6 also). Our first choice would have been a Honda Odyssey, but there were none in our price range when we needed to buy the van....we bought the Toyota from a church friend. We wont own another Ford

 

[Mommy Of 3]

I have a 2011 Sienna LE, and I love it. It has the back-up camera in it for safety, too. If you buy anew one you get free maintenance for 2 years and a good finance rate.

 

[StephMK]

We won't do Ford again either after our van started dropping the transmission at 99k. We have a 2006 Sienna and also love the 8 passenger model! I plan for this to be my last van as it should die around the time my youngest in mid-HS or beyond.

LOL at the PP, a friend of mine just sold her Jeep (her 1st baby) for a van. She was not happy either! Glad it's growing on you, they are awfully convenient when you have kids!

 

[Ariel8676]

We bought a Kia 1 1/2 years ago and its great!

 

[limace]

We have an '05 Buick Terraza and I just hate it. Way too big (it looks more like an SUV) and, while some of the luxuries are nice (DVD, power doors, leather seats), more electronic things=more things to break. We've had to do two repairs on the power doors.

We are a family of 5 so really need something with a third row seat, but I'm thinking of a Mazda 5 instead of another traditional minivan-smaller, cheaper, good reliability, and better gas mileage.

 

[NYCDiane]

I would steer clear of Chrysler/Dodge (no pun intended). I have the Grand Caravan and it's been nothing but TROUBLE.... one repair after the next, horrible MPG, and one problem after the next.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

I asked about minivans on the CB a few weeks ago and the overwhelming response was in favour of the Honda Odyssey. We checked out some of the other favourites, but ended up preferring the Odyssey.

A new minivan was not in our budget, so we ended up buying a 2009 Odyssey LX (base model). We wanted to stick to a budget of no more than $5K over the cost of our trade in, but we ended up getting the 2009 for a straight trade for my 2010 Prius. It doesn't have any thrilling features (no power doors or back-up cam, but we're going to have an aftermarket camera installed for about $200) but it was under $20K (and under 30K miles and in great condition) and it fit our budget.

It did hurt me a bit (ok, a LOT!) to hand over the keys to my loaded Prius for a big beige minivan, but it fits everything we need in it and reviews are good, so I'm happy enough.

 

[fakereadhed]

Not a minivan, but if you have little people to sit in back row, Mazda5 seats 6. Low price, fun to drive, versatile.

We are family of five, but often I'm only carrying a couple of kids at a time. The back row folds down, so today I had an entire patio furniture set in the back.

If you routinely had 6 in the car it wouldn't be ideal.

 

[java]

Not a minivan, but if you have little people to sit in back row, Mazda5 seats 6. Low price, fun to drive, versatile.

We are family of five, but often I'm only carrying a couple of kids at a time. The back row folds down, so today I had an entire patio furniture set in the back.

If you routinely had 6 in the car it wouldn't be ideal.

How tiny is that back seat? I liked the price on it. My oldest is a senior in high school, so we will generally be 5 vs 6 shortly.

Thanks for all the advice. Right now on the list it sounds like Toyota Sienna, Mazda5 and the Honda. That one would have to be used. My fear with the Mazda is that my sister had one a couple years ago and that car was a lemon from day one. But in reading consumer report they name it as a good reliable often overlooked car.

I woke up today hoping it was a bad dream........but it wasn't.

 

[burnurcomputer]

Kia Sedona!!!!!


I have one that I LOVE!!!!!!!! Kia has high safety ratings, is affordable, roomy, and really fits my 4 kids and I well. We fill all 7 of our seats every weekend and I am comfortable in the back with my almost 14 and almost 12 year olds

 

[fakereadhed]

There is not much leg room back there. My teen girls are under 5'4" and ride back there, but if you had 6' teens it wouldn't work.

I have had 4 lemons in my lifetime- the kind that I needed to bring in for warranty starting a few months after purchase. Ford, Chevy, Buick, and Chysler. Makes it hard not to have a grudge against the mfr. when the service people also make it difficult for you.

I'm on my 3rd Mazda in a row. I made one trip to the dealer for service with the first one because the back seats only got AC with the rear controls. Turns out the rear controls only have AC or heat- you pick. That's another thing to be aware of.

Also, the tires need to be replaced in about 2 years. You can find lots of complaints about the tires needing replacement too soon, but DH works in auto industry and says it's not that the tires are poor quality. They are performance tires that are slicker to begin with to improve handling and more for the european market. They are also expensive to replace. We replace them with a different type that are less expensive and have a thicker tread a couple years out and that works for us.

 

[de8212]

We've had a 2008 T&C since July 08. No real complaints. There have been several recalls that we've had addressed (just got another one last week) but nothing life endangering. It's kinda a pain but it's nice they are stepping up and admitting an issue rather than doing nothing.

From what I've read the resale value is not very good but I'm not too concerned about that...yet. I might have rahter had an Odyssey but then I would have paid a few thousand more off the bat but then the resale would have been better. So it's all a wash IMO.

With the remote start, dual dvd players, auto side doors and rear gate door, heated seats, stow and go (awesome!!!), etc. it's very feature packed.

 

[MSLRAC]

We have a 2008 Grand Caravan that we are going to replace with a Suburban. I love the power sliding doors and hatch and stow & go but that's about it. Our main issue is that there is not enough leg room in the third row for my DD7. She sits in the middle of that row so her legs can go between the two captains chairs in the second row because otherwise, her knees hit the back of the seats. Add that to the 4 recalls in the last year and the transmission starting to shift hard and we are done with it. We've done our research and our family just fits better in a full sized SUV.

but we have had more than our fair share of minivans over the years and I will say that if I had to buy anther one, it would be an Odyssey or Sienna. We had the least about of problems out of those, they both had nicer standard features and were better constructed than the Dodges and Chryslers that we have owned.

 

[racefanof88]

We bought a Kia 1 1/2 years ago and its great!

Kia Sedona!!!!!


I have one that I LOVE!!!!!!!! Kia has high safety ratings, is affordable, roomy, and really fits my 4 kids and I well. We fill all 7 of our seats every weekend and I am comfortable in the back with my almost 14 and almost 12 year olds

Same here! I have a 2011 Kia Sedona and we LOVE it!!! The highest safety rating of any minivan on the road was the main draw for us. The price is great and it has a 10 year/ 100,000 mile warranty. It is my 3rd minivan. I had a Mazda MPV and a Oldsmobile Silhouette. There is plenty of room in the van for my big boys (6' and taller).The baggage well in the back is great too.

We rented several different vans for Disney trips(before we got our first van). We rented a Montana on one trip, a Grand Caravan on another and a Kia for a trip; of the three the Kia got the best mileage and had more storage/leg room.

We love the Kia so much we just bought a new Kia Forte Koup for my husband.

 

[kirrrby]

We love the Toyota Sienna. We had an 04' and my mom go into an accident with it, they deemed it totaled. We replaced it with a Honda CR-V, hated that car. Worst seats ever. Now we've replaced that with a 2012 Toyota Sienna XLE. Love this van. It fits me, the boyfriend, parents, and three dogs easily. It has a lot of head room for the taller people (Dad and Bf, both 6'+ ) and it was comfortable enough to ride 11 hours to WDW in December. The power sliding doors and the back up camera are both big selling points for them and we love them. Also it has an add in seat to make the two captains chairs in the middle row to make it a 3 seat instead of 2 seats. Also, the center console...big enough for EVERYTHING! We've even used it for moving and it fits a queen set (mattress and boxspring) in it and it still closes.

Good luck searching!